Sizzling pot, fresh ingredients and authentic Cantonese feeling, Ze 8 is a good choice for you to get some old-fashioned Cantonese comfort food this summer.

After the first success in Guangzhou, Ze 8 now opens the second branch at Hongmei Road. The open-kitchen enables guests to witness the process of hot clay pot cooking. One of the restaurant’s most popular dishes is lobster served in a sizzling hot clay pot and flavored with Shaoxing wine. After all the ingredients are placed in the pot, the chef sends it straight to the diner, who can savor its original flavors as it slowly cooks.

“Traditional Cantonese cuisine is distinguished by its rigorous choice of ingredients and the craftsmanship that goes into its preparation,” said Lu Zhihong, manager of Ze 8 who has over 25 years of cooking experience. “We use imported fresh blue lobster and tailor-made 15 choices of sauces to choose.”

The guests will be asked to choose one of the 15 kinds of sauces including ginger sauce, garlic sauce, shrimp sauce, abalone sauce or soy bean sauce when ordering.

Other clay-pot ingredient choices include chicken, ribs, seafood, meat, vegetables, rice and even fruit. The abalone pot, preserved sausage with rice pot and the papaya pot are par¬ticularly popular.

Ze 8 also offers a full range of pipping hot, slow simmered soups that are perfect for warding off the winter chills. The recommendations are the black-bone chicken with coconut, Chinese yam and wolfberry soup. This flavorful dish costs only 39 yuan (US$5.9) per person, but guests are required to order in advance.

Other picks include pork soup with lily roots, chicken soup with abalone and duck soup with sea horse.

Seafood fans will also want to taste the mantis shrimp fried with garlic and pepper, a dish made with prawns imported from Thailand.